Prove that lineage!

PBJ was going to the mid-cape city. He asked if I wanted to come along.

Of course!

We hit up WorstBuy for a new kitchen TV, and DeepHo for the pieces to build a shelf. Even though we could have used one of those nifty mounting brackets (because the new TV is ‘flat’), PBJ spent less then $10 on a piece of laminate shelving and a small package of L brackets, saving $30 minimum compared to the mounting bracket.

When the shopping was done, PBJ asked if I was ready to go. No, I was ready to eat!!

To avoid the shmall and the associated shmall hoodlums, PBJ steered the BoxCar to Main St. We drove down the road and picked out a few possibilities before parking off of North St.

Walking through the access alley, I commented that Alberto’s was out. They have waitstaff in white shirts and ties, tablecloths, and a fancy reputation.

We are not fancy people.

Our first hit was Schooners with it’s few tables of sidewalk seating and fancy maroon awning. A girl with a foreign accent offered us a look at the menu. When I opened it to find appetizers started at $9.99, I knew Schooner’s would blow our non-rating rating system food review budget.

Next we visited the front of Tim B’s, which is the millionth different restaurant (or as they named it ‘bar & grill’) to be located in the Asa Bearse house. Asa Bearse built the place back during the whale oil lantern days, so the name of the house is real. Unfortunately, the menu on the board had weird pricey food, so we passed.

Our walk now back tracked to the British Beer Company’s (BBC) Hyannis location (in case you hadn’t figured out what mid-cape city we were in…). In the interest of full disclosure: I’ve been to the BBC before. Several times in fact. I have never been there for a review with PBJ. We have eaten at the Falmouth location together, but it was long before I started writing reviews.

We went inside to find the place full. The hostess told us it was a 15 minute wait. Not a problem. Of course as other people came in, they were told 20 minutes, so I started to worry.

After a 20 minute wait we were offered a “high” table. You know, one of those overly tall tables that are categorized as “pub” style by the furniture manufacturers. It’s the kind of table that you have to push your chair in before you sit because there is no scooching it in once seated. (Jesse, I’m not making fun of your pub set!)

I’m fine with that. Better the table and chairs you know, then the table and chairs bolted to the floor.

We ignored the alcohol menu (thank you BBC for making it a completely separate book) and scanned the nightly specials finding nothing of interest.

While we pondered the menu, we asked for sprites. I’m not sure if their machine was running low on sugar, but there was some kind of chemical aftertaste to the sprite. Almost as if it was diet, but still had some sugar. I suspect it could have been the ice cubes because this particular mid-cape city has such a high level of chlorine in the water, and ice cubes are made of that water, that the chlorine was probably melting from the cubes into our sprite.

Someone may want to look into that…. Just saying.

In the regular menu I found a few ‘possibles’: 10″ pub pizza, French dip sandwich, grilled chicken ceaser wrap, and the Cavern Club. A few other options would have required “holding” something or other. I’m finding many places are putting onions and/or cheese on everything. Let me tell you, if food requires onions and/or cheese to taste better, it had something very wrong to begin with.

This is what we eventually ordered: a crock of chowder for PBJ, a cup of chowder for me, a BBC burger for PBJ and the Cavern Club with turkey for me.

You will note, we did not order fish ‘n chips. PBJ said something about how when we ate the fish n’ chips at the Falmouth restaurant oh those so many years ago we didn’t like it. I could find no reference to the visit in this blog, so I had to trust his memory.

The place stayed busy. I was glad we were seated off to the side, towards a corner. The middle dining room were we had waited to be seated had been very loud. The voices of dinners mixed with the piped in music and then swirled around the tray ceiling making the center of the restaurant loud to the point of unbearable.

Our chowders arrived first.

Not only did PBJ’s crock look cute because it was a crock, but it also came with double Westminster crackers (shout out to my Crackers!)

We both tasted the chowder. It had a nice salty taste, a few pieces of clams, and a hearty amount of potatoes. It is the prime season for potatoes, so I’m concerned that clam chowder over the next couple of weeks is going to have an inordinate amount of potatoes no matter where we go.

Some pepper was added from the grinder on the table, but I really didn’t notice a change in flavor. I admit I went a little timid on the pepper grinder, but I didn’t want to kill the flavor.

After chowder we were served our meals. First was PBJ’s burger.

The menu describes it like this: Served with hickory smoked bacon and gouda cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, ketchup and mustard

Neither one of us knew what gouda cheese was. And the ketchup and mustard were on the table already in squeezey bottles, so I’m not sure why it was spelled out in the menu description. Turns out the menu was overly ambitious, and PBJ only found spicy mustard on the bottom bun, no ketchup except in the squeezey bottle.

If you look closely at the picture, you will note the olive hiding behind the flag. Not just any olive, but a giant green olive speared by a toothpick and then proudly displayed on top of the burger. Like the olive had a choice. Like the chef needed to fear the olive. Sorry olive.

Next was my Cavern Club:

I had chosen the turkey instead of the roast beef. The bread seemed dehydrated, not toasted (it had no tell tale toast marks or browning), and anywhere near the actual outside crust was just about impossible to bite and chew. I tried, and gave up. The tomatoes and turkey were not evenly distributed across the sandwich. Mostly they were piled in the middle. This meant the first bites were too big for my mouth, then the entire thing collapsed as the turkey and tomatoes were consumed long before the bread. As for the bacon, it was so cooked it broke up into bacon bits at the slightest nudge.

If I had a star rating system (which I don’t), I would give it 3 out of 4 stars.

Cozy, packed dining room, just stay away from the middle

Sprite had chemical aftertaste, sandwich bread very dry

Food portion size large, fries very filling

Once seated, service was very prompt and not overly solicitous

(Note: PBJ gave it a 3 1/2 stars. 1/2 star off for funny sprite )

When done, we waited for a take-home box and the check. We played with PBJ’s olive, looked at the desert menu, and I focused on the BBC logo.

Do you see it? Let me zoom in for those of you at home:

A tradition since 1066 A.D. Really? You have pictures of British Beer Company restaurants from 1066 A.D.? No pics? Okay, how about some parchments sealed with those little wax things that were so fashionable back then?

Are you trying to say that the British Beer Company became a tradition during the Norman invasion of England? Maybe William the Conqueror was your first paying customer! Is his British pound framed and displayed on a wall somewhere behind the bar?

I don’t mean to fact check your logo… I’m just very confused! But I’m full too, so good job.